


Something Good Can Work

by situation_normal



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: A little bit of angst, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, And they also need sex, Anxiety, Ben Solo Needs A Hug, Does that even count as drugs?, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Mentions of steven seagal, Minor Violence, Neighbors, One Shot, Pining, Recreational Drug Use, Rey Needs A Hug, Reylo - Freeform, Self-Esteem Issues, Shylo Ren, Smut, Virgin Ben Solo, anger issues, but its weed, valentines day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-01
Updated: 2018-09-01
Packaged: 2019-07-05 13:02:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15864162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/situation_normal/pseuds/situation_normal
Summary: Ben Solo loses his heart to his pretty neighbour the first day he meets her. He sends her an anonymous Valentine every year after.This is porn with a tiny amount of plot. Or is it plot with a tiny amount of porn? I can't really decide. It was fun to write, so I hope it's fun to read!





	Something Good Can Work

__  


_“Just call your damn mother! Would it kill you to drop her a line some time? What the hell is_ wrong _with you?” Poe snapped._

_Ben felt his control break and he slammed a fist into the wall next to his roommate’s head. The plasterboard gave way and his knuckles split at the impact. Raw adrenaline coursed through him and he glared at Poe in fury, his breaths coming out in ragged chuffs through his bared teeth._

_He had completely forgotten about the other presence in their apartment until her hand was on his. He snapped his head around to see that she was cradling his wrecked fist tenderly, looking up at him with wide eyes._

_“Ben?” she whispered steadily, as if she was speaking to a frightened animal. “Are you okay? You've hurt yourself. Let’s go and wrap this up.”_

_Rey—the girl had only just moved in next door. They were having her round to introduce themselves and he hadn't even managed to go_ one _evening without making a scene. The hot anger that had been burning through his system a moment ago completely dissipated. His shoulders slumped and he dropped his eyes to the floor in shame. He nodded minutely, allowing himself to be led to the bathroom where she helped him clean and dress his hand._

_“You can’t hold onto resentment like that forever; you’ll never be free of your demons. Have you ever thought about therapy? It really helped me with my... ‘parent issues,’” she said softly from the edge of the bathtub where she had perched herself._

_Ben just stared at her in disbelief. Why was she being so kind to him? She didn’t look afraid of him, even after his outburst. No, he hadn’t tried therapy; he didn’t think anything could change the way he was. A loose canon—a monster. He snapped his jaw shut and lowered his gaze, shaking his head. She gave his knee a reassuring squeeze and smiled at him encouragingly before she left him alone._

_“Don’t worry about him, he gets like that sometimes. I swear it’s not all the time, so you don’t have to worry about the noise,” he heard Poe grumbling to her as he ushered her out. Ben felt his cheeks heat; he hated being spoken about like that._

_“Maybe you_ should _worry about him a bit more,” her voice was low and Ben thought he could hear a note of disapproval there. “Thank you for having me round; it was nice to meet you both. I guess I’ll see you around.”_

_He shut his eyes and leaned back, breathing deeply to steady himself. This was the beginning of it. He heard the apartment door close with a click. He felt his heart follow her out the door._

_Ben Solo was utterly and completely fucked._

~~~

Rain hammered down on the pavement as Ben ran back towards his apartment block. He pulled the front door open and rushed up the stairs, scrambling into his apartment and straight out to the tiny concrete box that was his balcony.

He immediately began yanking the half-soaked laundry off of the line, bundling it into his arms to get it out of the rain. He almost dropped it as a musical laugh reached his ears from the balcony next door.

Rey grinned at him and flicked the ash from the end of her spliff, leaning her elbows on the wall of her balcony. “Happy Valentine’s Day, neighbour. Did you get any cards?”

Ben cleared his throat to hide his discomfort and shook his head. He never received any Valentine’s—he liked it that way. There was only one person he'd ever thought about in that way, and she was smiling at him right now. Why was it still so difficult to speak to her?

He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly and forced himself to ask the pointless question; he already knew the answer, just as he had known every year since she’d moved in. “You?” he asked gruffly.

She took another drag on her spliff and nodded. “Of course; my secret admirer never let’s me down,” she said with a laugh.

It had been three years now since she moved in—since _that_ incident. Three years since he’d booked himself into therapy; three years since his last outburst. Three fucking _years_ since he realised that he was hopelessly in love with the girl next door.

Somehow, though, he had never managed to summon the courage to tell her. Sending her an anonymous Valentine every year in his most elegant script—he knew all those calligraphy classes would come in handy—was the only way he could bring himself to reveal his feelings.

Rey was everything he wasn't. She was this beautiful, fun, kind, amazing woman; he was an awkward, angry, funny looking asshole. He had no chance.

He opened the balcony door and chucked the bundled laundry inside, glancing back over to Rey. She had finished her smoke and was lounging casually in a deck chair, smiling as the rain poured down around her.

“You should go in, you’ll catch a cold out here,” he growled. Why couldn’t he speak normally to her? Everything he said came out wrong. What was he, her dad?

She smirked at him. “You know that’s not how it works, right? You don’t ‘catch a cold’ from cold weather. I like the rain.”

Ben shoved his hands in his pockets and planted himself on the wet plastic chair on his own balcony. The weather was shit and he hated the rain, but he wasn’t about to pass up an opportunity to spend time with her. He listened to her absentminded humming and closed his eyes to enjoy it.

“Why don’t you ever have a date on Valentine’s Day?” she asked, startling him out of his stupor.

 _Because I'm in love with you._ “I guess I’m not really the romantic type,” he choked out, his cheeks warming.

She snorted and he noticed she was leaning on the wall again, her eyes crinkling in private amusement as she watched his reaction. “I don't have one this year either, wanna hang out at my place and watch crap films? Let’s wallow in self-pity together. I’ve got ice cream.”

Was she... was she inviting him over? For a date? On Valentine’s Day? His heart jumped in his chest at the thought and he forced himself to calm down. He shrugged as casually as he could manage. “Sure.”

“Cool, I’m just gonna have a shower to get the rain off me. You order a pizza or something, see you in a bit,” she chirped, hopping out of her seat and disappearing back into her apartment.

Holy shit. Ben bolted through to his bathroom and switched on the shower, glowering at himself in the mirror as he let the water heat up. This was definitely not a date. Definitely not. There was just no way in hell. But he was about to spend the evening with the girl of his dreams, the only person he’d ever encountered that had treated him with gentleness and understanding rather than fear when he’d been at his most vulnerable.

If she wanted to hang out as friends, he could do that. He’d never been inclined to date or become involved with anyone romantically before, why should that suddenly change? He had pretty much grown up assuming that he was asexual, a few awkward fumbles in college had been enough to confirm that for him. Until Rey.

Since she had moved in, there was barely a moment that she hadn’t crossed his mind. He just wanted to be with her; listening to her talk, holding her hand, kissing her. He’d even found himself jerking off to the thought of her, like the creep that he was. He shook his head in attempt to clear his thoughts, stripping his clothes and climbing in the shower to scrub the dirty thoughts away. She would be so disgusted if she knew he'd thought about her that way.

He called for a pizza and picked out some clothes—his standard black on black. Dark wash jeans and a black tee-shirt with a black leather jacket. Should he take a bottle of wine? No, that would be too suggestive, the pizza was enough.

He paid the delivery boy and made his way over to her front door, sucking in a steadying breath before hesitantly knocking. She pulled the door open, grinning widely at him. She really was a little ray of sunshine in his life.

“Hey! Come in, I’ve got a bottle of wine open.” She surprised him by hopping onto her tiptoes and kissing him softly on the cheek.

“Uh—great, I brought the pizza,” he said dumbly, lifting the boxes in his hands to show her.

He followed her inside, he'd never been in her apartment before, although she seemed to hang out at theirs often enough—he wasn’t sure why, since she and Poe seemed to rub each other up the wrong way, and Ben was so nervous around her that he rarely managed more than a grunt in response to her sunny attempts at conversation with him.

She was wearing a pale floral tea dress, and her hair was pulled neatly back into a half-up, half-down style. He liked it; had she dressed up for him? “You look pretty,” he offered, unsure if he was overstepping some kind of invisible boundary.

Apparently he hadn't, because her eyes sparkled at the compliment. “Thank you, Ben. You don’t look so bad yourself.”

He struggled to control his breathing as he dropped the pizza boxes down on her coffee table, settling himself on the edge of her tiny couch. She appeared from the kitchen with two glasses of wine, passing one to him and raising her own towards him.

“To wallowing in self-pity?” she said with a smirk.

He tapped his glass against hers and nodded in agreement. She sunk down onto the couch next to him and set her glass on the table, fishing out a slice of pizza and flicking on the TV.

She picked _Under Siege_ without asking his opinion and draped her legs over his lap, leaning further back into her seat. Ben froze. Sure, they had become fairly close over the past three years, but they didn’t usually share casual physical contact like this. He tried to relax, focusing on the movie; god, this movie was terrible. He glanced around the room, looking for anything that would distract him from his rapidly growing erection.

Three small white cards sat on a shelf above her television, he recognised them all immediately to be the ones he’d sent her. His feelings poured out into short poems. The latest card had not been as poetic—he found himself at a loss for flowery rhymes and decided to finally just be frank. Those three little words in black ink, the only thing decorating the card inside or out.

She laughed at a particularly ridiculous scene and shifted her weight slightly. Alarm bells rang as one of her feet edged dangerously close to his... situation.

Ben jumped to his feet abruptly and cleared his throat. “I gotta go to the bathroom,” he said. He sounded like a fucking teenager the way his voice cracked. He didn’t stop to see her reaction before he escaped into her bathroom and slumped down on the floor, his back to the door.

Ben wasn’t sure how long he had been in there hyperventilating before he heard a tentative knocking on the door.

“Ben? Are you okay in there? You seemed a bit... panicked,” Rey called.

 _Shit_. “I’m fine, I just need a couple minutes,” he replied. He was wrecking his chance. She was gonna think he was in here taking a giant dump or something. Ugh. She was definitely giving him a vibe, what the heck was he supposed to do?

“We—” she broke off, her voice sounding more unsure than he’d ever heard her. “We don’t have to do this, Ben.”

“Do what exactly? Have lonely Valentine’s drinks together?” he rumbled through the door.

“Did you mean it?” she murmured so softly he wasn’t sure he had heard her. “Did you mean what you said in that card? I know it was you, I’ve always known.”

Ben squeezed his eyes shut. He really was pathetic. A 32 year old virgin pining over his neighbour for three years. Was she offering him pity sex? He pulled himself to his feet, his cock well and truly flaccid with the humiliation of the moment. He unlatched the door, avoiding her eyes as he brushed past her.

“I'm sorry, Rey. God, I’m an idiot. I gotta go, I need to get out of here,” he mumbled, stalking out of her front door and through to his own.

He slammed his apartment door behind him and made his way to his bedroom, preparing himself for a 20 hour sleep after a pathetic amount of crying.

“Yo, asshole,” Poe yelled at him from the couch. “You get home first; collect the damn mail next time.”

Ben swallowed his irritation and the lump that was rising in his throat. “I was in a rush, it was pouring and we had laundry out.”

Poe didn’t look away from the TV. “Well, you’ve got mail—looks like a card or something.”

Ben’s heart stuttered in his chest, he stepped back over to the kitchen where a pile of letters were scattered on the counter. A pale pink envelope sat on the top of the pile, his name on the front, no address, it had been delivered by hand.

He ripped the envelope open and a plain white card dropped out of it. He picked up the card with a shaking hand and opened it.

_Dear Ben,_

_I love you, too._

_Always yours,_

_Rey_

“FUCK!” Ben roared, barely stopping himself from breaking his hand on the countertop. He ran back out into the corridor and hammered on Rey’s front door. “Rey? Rey, I’m so sorry, I fucked up. Let me in—please.”

The latch clicked and the door opened a fraction, revealing Rey’s splotchy, tear-stained face on the other side.

He gazed at her in wonder, trying to find the words. “You love me?” was all that came out of his stupid mouth.

Her pretty brow furrowed and a tear leaked down one of her flushed cheeks as she nodded steadily in response.

He pushed the door open and pulled her into his arms, pressing kisses into her hair. “Fuck, Rey, I love you—I love you so much, I’m sorry. Can we start this night again? I’m a mess; I have no idea what I’m doing. You’re everything to me.”

He felt her shoulders shake under his arms and a warm, wet patch of tears gathered on the front of his tee-shirt where her face was nestled.

“You idiot,” she said thickly, her voice muffled by his shirt. “Why the fuck do you think I invited you over? I’ve been waiting for you to tell me for years. I didn’t know if you were messing with me with those cards, or if you were sending them so I wouldn’t feel lonely. When I got that one in my mailbox this morning, I had to know if you were serious.”

“Sweetheart, you’re probably the only thing I’ve been this serious about, ever.” He released her from his arms and she looked up at him, a tentative smile pulling at the corners of her lips.

“Shall we have pizza? It’s gone cold, and I ate some while you were hiding in the bathroom,” she offered shyly. God, she was cute when she was being shy.

He leaned down to press another kiss into her hair, but she caught his chin with one hand and pulled him down to her lips. He couldn’t believe this was happening to him. He was out of practice, he hadn't kissed a girl since college, but he followed Rey’s lead as she pulled him closer and parted her lips slightly for him.

He groaned at the taste of her and his instincts took over, he lifted her from the floor without breaking their kiss and she wrapped her legs around his waist.

“Bedroom. Now. Second door on the left,” Rey gasped between kisses.

Right next to his room, they shared a fucking wall. He pushed the door open with his back and sat down on the bed, Rey straddling him and their lips still locked together, the heat between her thighs made him so hard that he ached. She ground herself against him and he gasped, pulling away from her lips briefly to catch a breath.

“Rey... Fuck... when I said I have no idea what I’m doing—I mean this, too.” He gestured between them. “I’ve never done this before.”

She paused in the middle of unbuttoning the front of her dress and locked eyes with him. “You've never—you're a virgin?”

He felt his cheeks heat and averted his eyes, nodding briefly. “I’m sorry, I do want this; I want it to be good for you, though.”

Rey cupped his chin softly and made him look at her properly, she was smiling. “Well, I can’t say I’m not a little surprised... I thought you would be the experienced one in this, but we can work it out. I haven’t slept with that many guys, but I know enough. I guess at least we don’t have to worry about condoms, I’m on the pill and I’ve been tested; I’m clean.”

Her words sent a thrill down his spine and Ben groaned, capturing her lips again and canting his hips into her, she released a breathy moan at the contact.

“I think you’re gonna be a fast learner,” she gasped.

Ben took over where she had been unbuttoning her dress and slipped it off her shoulders, pulling away from her to look at her body; she was beautiful—perfect, so much better than his daydreams. He ran a hand from her jaw down to her shoulder and she shut her eyes, shivering slightly beneath his touch as he brushed his thumbs over her covered nipples.

The black, lacy bra she wore was lovely, but it didn’t look very comfortable. He wanted to take it off. “Did you... wear this for me?”

Rey blushed and nodded. “Yeah, I didn’t think everything would go like this... but I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to happen tonight.”

She reached behind her back and unhooked the bra, letting it drop into her lap before leaning forwards to push his jacket off his shoulders and pull his shirt off over his head. Ben was powerless, he just gawped at her, waiting for his brain to catch up.

“Wow, Solo, you’re shredded. Is that an eight-pack?” she giggled.

Ben blinked at her and followed her gaze down to his bare chest. “Oh—uh—I guess there’s something to be said for 15 years of sexual frustration?”

She laughed again and he flipped their positions, laying her down on the bed so that he could see her. He pulled her dress and panties off in one motion and she squeaked, covering herself with her hands.

“Why?” he asked, reaching between them to grasp her wrist and move her hand away.

“It’s embarrassing!” she wailed, a deep blush creeping across her cheeks, Ben was almost relieved that he wasn't alone in his self consciousness, but he didn’t want Rey to be embarrassed around him.

“I want eat you out though, so I’m gonna see pretty close up anyway. Can I?” he asked hesitantly. “You’re beautiful, every single part of you is fucking perfect, Rey.”

“Holy shit, Ben, how can you be so damn frank about this?” she gasped as he ran a finger over her slit.

Ben shrugged, masking a shiver at the feeling of her arousal on his skin. “I figured we’ve had enough miscommunication for one evening. So, can I?” he asked again, finding a spot that made her gasp and rubbing it again a little harder.

“Uh-huh,” she mewled as he continued rubbing circles over her clit.

He grinned at her permission and dipped his head between her legs, parting her folds and flicking his tongue over her sex. He had dreamed about doing this for her, and holy fuck, it was better than he’d imagined. Her taste was addictive, he groaned as he felt her arousal leaking over his parted lips.

She grasped a handful of his hair and pulled him closer, arching her back and pushing her hips towards him. He took a chance and sucked on the little bundle of nerves, it must've been the right thing to do because she keened and her legs shuddered as she clamped her thighs around his head.

All the tension went out of her body and she loosened her grip on his hair, wrapping a hand weakly around one of his arms and pulling him on top of her.

“Was that okay?” he asked innocently.

She lifted her head and kissed his mouth lazily before slumping back down. “Yeah, that was good,” she replied breathlessly. “You definitely need more practice though—I’ll volunteer.”

Ben grinned at her stupefied expression and kissed her again, still struggling to believe how his day had turned out. His breath caught in his throat when he felt her hand press against the bulge at the crotch of his jeans.

She unbuckled his belt and he got up to shuck his jeans off along with his boxers. He cast his eyes over her dishevelled form and was hit with a sudden wave of anxiety. This was special—his first time. He tried to quash the unwelcome nerves, he wasn't a blushing 18 year old girl for God’s sake.

Rey caught his eye and smiled disarmingly at him, raising her arms to beckon him towards her. He climbed back onto the bed and into her arms.

“It’s okay to be nervous, but it’s me. I love you, let’s do this together, you’re wonderful,” she murmured encouragingly into his ear.

She took his cock in her hand and he almost choked. He was not going to last. Once she’d lined him up with her entrance, he pressed inside her slowly, the feeling was unreal. He released a guttural moan as her heat, the pressure of her tight cunt, engulfed him.

She whimpered quietly as he hilted himself fully inside her. Ben heard himself grunting an unintelligible stream of profanities and endearments. He pulled away and thrust back into her, increasing in speed until his vision blurred and every nerve ending in his body lit up as he came inside her.

He pulled her into his arms as he rolled off of her, their chests rising and falling in unison as they gradually gained their breath back.

“Wow,” he murmured. “Wow.”

She giggled and pressed herself closer into him. “I know, right?” She planted a kiss on his chest. “Wanna go watch Steven Seagal dressed as a chef beating up a load of terrorists? We still have pizza.”

Ben nodded. “Sure. Happy Valentine’s Day.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> I'll see myself out


End file.
